Previously, many types of animal feeders have been used in endeavoring to provide an effective means for producing a device that would unattendedly feed and water pets and various animals, at appropriate times. Prior art is replete with structure utilizing timers, motors, valves, etc., to produce the desired feeding intervals and quantities. Some feeders measure weight, some volume, and others dispense a predetermined amount that has been manually selected during a previous loading sequence. The power to energize the feeder is either supplied by an alternating current source, such as house power, or is battery operated and completely self-contained. Some feeders mix water into dry pet food, and others deliver the food as it comes from the package. Water is provided at time intervals by some prior art and is kept at a constant level by others. It does not appear that any specific trend has developed in the industry and some devices are large and take-up considerable space, and others are small, such as a carousel offering only little portions of food for small pets, such as cats. It will be noted, however, that since the interest in domestic pets is almost universal in the United States, with some two-thirds of the households having at least one dog or cat, improvements in the discipline of automatic pet food dispensing is certainly needed.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that read directly on the claims of the instant invention, however, the following U.S. patents are considered related:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 5,363,805 Wing Nov. 15, 1994 5,265,560 Dobbins Nov. 15, 1994 4,981,106 Nagatomo Jan. 1, 1991 4,805,560 Knego et al Feb. 21, 1989 4,665,862 Pitchford, Jr. May, 19, 1987 4,079,699 Longmore et al Mar. 21, 1978 ______________________________________
Wing, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,805, teaches a pet feeder in a cabinet that includes a hopper and an auger rotated by a motor that dispenses dry food directly into a bowl placed near the device. The feeder utilizes a programmer that controls the frequency and amount of food delivered into the bowl. City power is used as the source of electrical energy to operate the motor and timer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,560 of Dobbins incorporates a clock or timer mechanism that rotates a sprocket upon which a timing belt is installed. The timing belt contains notches and passes through a series of belt guides compressing a spring lock trigger, opening a connecting spring loaded lid allowing the pet to eat or drink the food placed within individual trays positioned under each lid. The feeder is designed to feed a pet over a period of two and one-half days, or a weekend.
Nagatomo of Yokohama, Japan discloses a carousel-like feeder in U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,106. This feeder is rotated by an analog 24 hour clock movement operated by either batteries or electrical house power. Individual feeding segments, or boxes, with sectionized separators contain the feed. The feed boxes have flaps to drop the feed from the carousel when they pass over an opening on the floor of the round casing. The rotation is transmitted from the clock using slits at the contour of the face interfacing with stick pins in the carousel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,560 issued to Knego et al discloses an automatic pet feeding device of a modular construction that is round and relatively flat. The device indexes a food tray under a lid opening. The food tray provides a number (six pairs shown) of food and water combinations. A time/motor mechanism is located in the center of a base and the food tray is supported on the motor shaft. The motor operates on household current and a pulse timer actuates every 12 hours for 10 seconds rotating the tray to an opening in the housing for access.
Pitchford, Jr. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,862, teaches a leveraged loading storage bin for receiving a quantity of dry particulate feed and an auger that rotates and supplies a predetermined amount of feed into a feed dish adjacent to the feeder. A direct current motor rotates the auger with a chain drive at predetermined time intervals controlled by a timer system and water is dispensed simultaneously into the dish to amalgamate the dry feed into a gravy. A separate system provides water for drinking using a float and switch to maintain the water level.
Longmore et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,699, teaches a storage hopper with slanted sides and a pair of rollers in the bottom. An alternating current drive motor directly connected to one of the rollers is actuated by a timer. The food passes through the rollers onto a weighing tray having an adjustable counterweight. When the weight is equalized, the motor is electrically locked out and deenergized and the food drops into a dish adjacent to the device. Simultaneously during the motor drive sequence, water is dispensed into a separate dish using a solenoid valve.
It may be seen from the above descriptions that timers or clock movements usually provide the time sequence and electric motors, or the like, the electromotive force.